I had a number of emails in my inbox from folks when I resurfaced yesterday asking if everything was ok since I hadn’t been blogging. I try to time these things so I get two weekends in the holiday, although I usually check my email on the Friday before I return so I don’t have a super silly day on Monday. I remembered to turn on an email out of office message – but not a blog out of office message (is there really such a thing? – I always feel odd reading someone’s post that “they are going on vacation and won’t be posting for a while.) For all of you that wrote wondering where I was, thanks for the concern and – as Amy loves to say – “hey – try turning off your computer for a few days.”

We were originally going to go to London for 10 days – half in the city and half to hang out at a castle somewhere while Amy rode horses and I played tennis. After the London terrorist scare, I decided I didn’t want to fly back and forth from London and deal with any existential anxiety I might have around 9/11, so I convinced Amy to go to LA for a few days followed by tennis at Green Valley Spa. I hate LA and tried my hardest to weasel out, but Amy really wanted to do something special for her 40th birthday. On Thursday 9/7, I threw her a surprise birthday party with 150 of her closest friends (surprise birthday party rule #42 – never have the party on the actual birth day.) On Friday 9/8, Amy told me we could bag our LA trip (she knows I hate LA.) So – we had the perfect vacation – at home, in Boulder – although everyone thought we were out of town.

That’s Boulder from the top of Bear Peak – my hike on Wednesday with my friend Dave. I read 11 books last week (reviews coming soon), saw a couple of movies (including Lord of War which was awesome and Invincible which reminded me of being 10 years old and a Dallas Cowboy fan), had a few great sushi meals, fully recovered from the New Mexico Marathon (meaning I slept a lot), and had a deep, beautiful vacation with my beloved.